TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa County Board of Education conducted its final day of interviews Thursday for the system's superintendent position. The finalists interviewed were Lawrence Vickers and Valya Lee.

By Jamon SmithStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa County Board of Education conducted its final day of interviews Thursday for the system's superintendent position. The finalists interviewed were Lawrence Vickers and Valya Lee.Vickers has been superintendent of the Saraland City School System since 2009. Before that, he served as superintendent of the Demopolis City School System from 2007 to 2009.Vickers also worked in the Tuscaloosa County School System from 1999 to 2000 as a teacher, and from 2002 to 2007 as a principal.Vickers said he's been in public education in Alabama for 23 years and would possibly like Tuscaloosa County to be his last career stop before retirement.He said he has family in Tuscaloosa County and his wife is a second-generation graduate of Tuscaloosa County High School. He has two school-age sons who he said he'd like to become third-generation graduates of Tuscaloosa County High.“Having my kids in the system would give me greater ownership of it,” he said.Vickers said he knows the system and knows Alabama education. He said he would be diligent in making sure the system achieves its goals, and he believes that the system needs someone with his kind of experience to guide it through all the accountability and curriculum changes coming next school year — Plan 2020, Common Core national curriculum, ACT being implemented as the high school graduation exam, possibly charter schools.“I have a simple but very strong belief that all children can learn,” he said. “It's easy to say that, but not easy to deliver.“I feel that this system has the best potential in the state.”Vickers said he believes the role of a superintendent is to ask the tough questions, to not be a stranger in the schools and someone who can be friendly with politicians not just when he needs something from them.He said a superintendent must also be a visionary leader and an advocate for the school system.In his first six months as superintendent, Vickers said he'd first focus on getting schools successfully opened for the start of the new school year. After that, he'd get to know the employees and examine what the system's strengths and weaknesses are.“The first six months for a new superintendent are critical because the board needs to know where they're going,” he said.Vickers said that he thinks the greatest weak point in the Tuscaloosa County School System is its low graduation rate, which is 68 percent overall.Asked what he thought about Plan 2020 — the new accountability standards and plan to make Alabama schools focus on preparing students for college and career — Vickers said it's a great opportunity and model for the school system. He said he'd try to implement Plan 2020's ideas in the system even if it wasn't a funded mandate.Vickers said he has a laser focus on student achievement. Under his leadership, he said Saraland's Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test scores rank 11th from the top out of 132 school districts in the state.Vickers has a doctorate of education from Nova Southeastern University.Lee has been an executive consultant for EducTrax in Georgia since 2012. Before leaving public education, she was the superintendent of Twiggs County Schools in Georgia from 2010 to 2012, assistant superintendent of the 52,000-student Clayton County Schools in Georgia from 2009 to 2010 and interim superintendent of Clayton County Schools from 2008 to 2009.Lee said she's been in education for a long time and has worked her way up the ranks. She said she tried to run from being an educator when she was young, but she said she couldn't ignore her calling. She first got involved in education as a concerned parent. She then became a substitute teacher and was offered a job as a full-time teacher. She's climbed the ranks from there and served as a CFO, director of federal programs, director of maintenance and numerous other roles in education.She said no matter what her title is or has been, she's always seen herself as a teacher.“I'm a strong advocate for children and public schools,” she said. “I'm a product of it. Private schools can pick and choose their children, but in public schools we take the children we get and we have to teach them all. It is a calling to do this.”Lee said the role of a superintendent is to be the face of the school system — it's voice, it's biggest cheerleader, it's educational leader, it's manager, a good listener and a person who makes sure her employees receive at least annual professional development.She said she doesn't see a superintendent as being at the top of the educational hierarchy.“The hierarchy is the community above the school board since they elect the board, the board above the superintendent and the superintendent above everything else,” she said.Lee said a good superintendent remembers who she really works for.In her first six months as superintendent, Lee said she'd visit schools, engage the community, examine the system's goals and meet with school leaders to find out what their needs and challenges are.She said that she would implement a 30-day plan and hold a community forum where she would solicit the community's concerns and opinions on the system. She said she would also do an assessment to determine what needs to be changed and report back to the community.Lee said the greatest issue she sees with the county schools is that the system has a lot of pockets of success, but doesn't have systemic success.“Success needs to be systemic so the good things happening at one school can happen at another,” she said.She also said the system's graduation rates need to improve.Lee said career tech is of the upmost importance. She said in Twiggs County she “ramped up” the system's career tech offerings by creating career tech programs where students could become certified when they graduate and go straight into the workforce.When asked about how she would eliminate the system's achievement gap between poor and minority students and students who are well-off economically, Lee said in a past system she was given 11 out of 12 middle schools that were failing and by the end of the school year the failing schools made Adequate Yearly Progress.“It's about doing drilling down, looking at the data and finding out what's working,” Lee said.She said that she would provide students with the appropriate social and psychological interventions if needed and give them intensive academic intervention.“It's pulling out all of the stops and making it happen,” she said. “It can be done and I've seen it done.”Lee said she believes the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education wants to hire the best superintendent they can. If that's the case, she said she's their woman.“I am the best,” Lee said. “We're all part of the education process. It takes a village.“If you get me, I'll make Tuscaloosa look good.”Lee has a doctorate in education from Argosy University.The board will vote on who the next superintendent will be on April 25.

Reach Jamon Smith at jamon.smith@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0204.

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